Palm sugar is gaining popularity as a substitute of sugar because of its health benefits. Derived from coconut palm trees, it is also rich in nutritious value
One of the hottest trends of the year is alternative sweeteners in everything. From packets for your morning tea to prepared beverages — you name it. And now a new product has entered the “naturally sweet” market — palm sugar. Derived from sugar palm and coconut palm trees, palm sugar (also known as coconut sugar) is a common ingredient in the cuisine of South East Asia, where it is also cultivated.
It is a nutrient-rich, low-glycemic crystalline sweetener that looks, tastes, dissolves and melts almost exactly like sugar, but it’s completely natural and unrefined. It’s acquired from the flowers growing high on coconut trees, which are opened to collect their liquid flower nectar. This nectar is then air-dried to form a crystalline sugar that’s naturally brown in color and naturally rich in a number of key vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, including potassium, zinc, iron, and vitamins B1, B2, B3 and B6.
It is never refined or bleached like white sugar. So the nutrients it was made with are still there. That’s rare for sweeteners, most of which are highly refined. Even stevia is highly refined in its white powder form (real stevia is a green herb).
Even though palm sugar cooks, dissolves and melts just like regular sugar, it has a far superior taste. The taste of pure coconut palm sugar resembles that of brown sugar, yet with more rounded caramel and butterscotch notes, without the metallic ending flavor that brown sugar has. It has a rich flavor.
Palm sugar adds a special richness to almost any recipe. You can use palm sugar as a replacement for regular white sugar in any recipe. You’ll get improved taste, improved nutrition and a lower overall glycemic index for the finished food.
Coconut palm sugar is a sugar substitute that seems to be gaining popularity in the market. It is made from sap that is extracted from the coconut tree. The taste of pure coconut palm sugar is similar to brown sugar. For cooking purposes, it has a very low melt temperature and an extremely high burn temperature so it can be used baked products in place of sugar.
Regular table sugar and high fructose corn syrup don’t contain any vital nutrients and therefore supply “empty” calories.
However, coconut sugar does retain quite a bit of the nutrients found in the coconut palm. There isn’t a lot of data on this, but according to the Phillipine Department of Agriculture, coconut sugar contains several nutrients.
Most notable of these are the minerals Iron, Zinc, Calcium and Potassium, along with some short chain fatty acids, polyphenols and antioxidants that may also provide some health benefits.
It contains a fiber called Inulin, which may slow glucose absorption and explain why coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index than regular table sugar.
I’d like to point out that even though coconut sugar contains some nutrients, you would get a lot more from other real foods.
It is very high in calories (same as regular sugar) and you’d have to eat a ridiculous amount of it to satisfy your need for the above nutrients.